Emulating factory ammo

[camster]

New to this hobby, and loving it so far. Local 'ol timer has suggested the best thing to have ever fed a 30-30 are old Winchester silver tip ammo (I have some for my .32Spec here...pretty yellow box)

How would you go about emulating a factory round? To me it seems counter-intuitive to why I started reloading in the first place. Is it just a matter of finding similar projectiles (if available), and matching MV with a similar type powder? Not pursuing it anytime soon, but curious about procedure just the same.

 

[Ganderite]

Easy to do. You need similar bullets, a suitable powder and a Chrony.

Get the average velocity of the factory ammo in your rifle and then load some ammo in 0.3 gr increments and find what load gives a similar velocity.

 

[Eagleye]

You will probably have difficulty finding those older Silvertips, unless someone has some old stock
hidden away someplace.
Do not be surprised if you find a load with another bullet that outperforms the factory load though.
An example.....My Marlin 336 shoots factory 170 grain ammo of 3 different types into about 2 moa at between
2025 fps and 2060 fps.
I have developed a load, using the Speer 170 FN, 30-30 bullet that shoots under 1 moa consistently @ 2235 fps,
using Leverevolution powder.

Nice to be able to play a bit....Dave.

 

[camster]

Easy to do. You need similar bullets, a suitable powder and a Chrony.

Get the average velocity of the factory ammo in your rifle and then load some ammo in 0.3 gr increments and find what load gives a similar velocity.

I have a Chrony, but subsequent searching tells me Winchester no longer sells the silver-tip bullet... Might find a suitable alternative.

You will probably have difficulty finding those older Silvertips, unless someone has some old stock
hidden away someplace.
Do not be surprised if you find a load with another bullet that outperforms the factory load though.
An example.....My Marlin 336 shoots factory 170 grain ammo of 3 different types into about 2 moa at between
2025 fps and 2060 fps.
I have developed a load, using the Speer 170 FN, 30-30 bullet that shoots under 1 moa consistently @ 2235 fps,
using Leverevolution powder.

Nice to be able to play a bit....Dave.

Might have to settle for better!

Thanks for the replies fellas. I have been having fun trying to reverse engineer some surplus ammo. A few over the chrony, and a few pulled (Thanks fellow CGNer who taught me to seat a crimped bullet a bit deeper before trying to hammer those bad-boys apart), but had no clue really where to begin with the "silvertips" knock off... I daon't have to begin with, nor optimistic about finding a box.

 

[BCRider]

Even in my own brief experience my early efforts just to get something to shoot has already bettered factory ammo for that rifle. So don't think that matching factory ammo for accuracy is a high accomplishment. With much effort at all you'll soon be making better than factory. And all the betterment from that is gravy.